Cal Baseball vs. Utah Utes: Friday Night Gamethread

Cal (11-12, 0-3) vs. Utah (9-14, 0-6)

When: 7pm

Where: Evan Diamond in Bekerkely, CA

Audio: KALX (90.7 FM in Berkeley)

Game Updates: Twitter (@Cal_Baseball)

Bears followed up a Pac-12 opening weekend sweep at home by the UCLA Bruins with a loss at Fresno State midweek. Then off to SLO to play No.6 Cal Poly, the Bears' bat finally woke up. Sadly, the Golden Bears were only able to take the Saturday game in a 4 game series against the Mustangs. The last loss on Monday includes the Bears blowing a 8-2 lead in the 2nd inning thanks to some a string of bloopers from the Mustangs.

Nevertheless, that series got the Bears a mention in ESPN's weekly College Baseball rankings:

2. Cal Poly (20-4)

Trending:

Last week: 6

Of note: Looks like the Year of the Mustang out west, especially with a 3-1 series win over a good Cal team. Monday's finale saw Poly overcome an 8-2 deficit with a 13-run second inning on the way to a 16-8 win.

Okay, that ranking is clearly about Cal Poly but they do use the adjective "good" to describe Cal.

Given a very tough schedule, should the Bears be able to finish the regular season above 0.500, which would likely require a Pac-12 record close to 0.500, there is a decent chance that that would be sufficient for the Bears to qualify for a postseason. For the Bears to achieve that, they would need to take care of business at home this weekend against the visiting Utah Utes.

Today's game is only on KALX but the next two games will be on the Pac-12 Networks (it's regional action only for Saturday but they would cut to it nationally after softball is over). Hopefully, the Bears can still maintain their hot bats while the Cal pitching can settle down, starting with freshman ace Daulton Jefferies.

GO BEARS!